Training updates, Running with a friend makes the miles go by faster, and Weight loss.

I really like my Where's Waldo
striped running top.

I have about 10 days worth of workouts to post.  Most of the miles were on the road, but I did get some  trail miles in as well. I had a killer run this past Tuesday.

I went exploring in the Clark County Wetlands Park . More on that later.

Training Updates

Monday 1/11  3.3 Miles, Two a day- In the morning I did a very short strength training workout... At this point in my life I'm not lifting weights to body build.  I'm lifting weights to keep my mobility, to stay strong for speed workouts, and to keep my upper body conditioned.  I don't lift super heavy or try to max out for my lifts.  Here's the short weight workout that I did.
Flat bench press with dumb bells 
One Arm Rows 
Hamstring Dead Lifts 
Bicep Curls 
Lat pull downs

At lunchtime, I went and returned my broken Garmin Forerunner 25,

Bummer because I really liked the black and purple watch.

and I picked up a replacement Forerunner 25.

Pink and white was all that was left

I tried out my new watch, and ran 3.3 miles at recovery pace. About halfway through my run, my mom called me and I talked to her the rest of the way.  It was nice to catch up with her.

Tuesday 1/12 5.5 Miles. Track work.  I was able to get my kids up and out to school (daycare) a little earlier than usual.  On my training calendar I had 4 x 800's.  I jogged from my workplace to the park that has a dirt track as my warm up , and then I did a quick stretch, and some form drills.  I wasn't expecting much from this workout, because I had raced a 10k over the weekend, and I was still feeling a little tired. In between 800's I jogged about 150 meters for recovery and then got the workout started again.

Here's the data: 3:40, 3:38, 3:29, 3:27
I ran the first two repeats in one direction, and then I changed directions for the third repeat.  I was short on time so I started to head back to work, and my last repeat was on a downhill grade.
That night I foam rolled and stretched.

Wednesday  1/13 7.1 Miles of mixed surfaces.  I had to run about two miles of roads, and then I decided to run up part of the Amargosa trail.  This is a really steep, rocky, and technical trail.

I love to climb, but I am so scared that I will do a face plant into the rocks on the way down. So I take my sweet ass time getting down the hill.

I climbed about a mile, and then came back down, and then I had to hurry back to work, and I ran tempo pace on the way back. Here's the data.

Thursday 1/14 6.2 Miles.  I had a hectic day at work, and I was really looking forward to running at lunchtime.  This really is the best time of year for running in Las Vegas.  At lunchtime the temps are in the 50's and its' perfect running weather. I am going to miss this in July....

I wasn't sure how my lunchtime workout was going to shake out. But, during the first mile of my run I recieved a phone call that I had been expecting, so I was able to extend my run.  I warmed up during the first mile, and then I started picking up the pace.  The first half was uphill, and the second half was downhill. I really tried to crank up the pace during miles 4-5, Mile 6 was supposed to be a cool down mile, but I started picking up the pace again.

 Here's the data.

I had to stop for a few red lights.

After this workout I stopped the Garmin, and ran a very short untimed cool down jog.

Friday 1/15  2.9 Miles Two a day... In the morning, I headed over to the Whitney Mesa Recreation Area.  This place is fantastic for getting a short run in without being bothered by traffic.  I didn't have a whole lot of time, so I just ran up onto the mesa, to one of the turn around points, and then I headed, back down.

There was a little more cloud coverage last Friday.

At lunchtime, I headed into the gym to lift....I'm kicking myself for not writing down my workout, after I finished it.  I do remember that I used a 25lb EZ curl bar for circuit training, I did the following exercises:

Bicep Curls

Upright Shoulder Rows

Shoulder Presses

Good Mornings

Squats

Single Leg Lunges.

I also did some side step downs (single leg squats body weight only)

and I think some cable flys....

Saturday 1/16 Rest, My son's birthday was over the weekend, and we threw a party at Chuck E Cheese.  That day I also received my first piece of equipment to review.  SLS3 sent me a new run belt to try out.

empty

fully loaded.

I will be posting a review and giveaway later on this week.

Sunday 1/17 10 Miles, I took my new waist pack out for a test drive.  This ended up being a tempo progression run I also had the crap scared out of me by three different German Shepards. These dogs leap high enough for their heads to clear the brick wall, but not quite high enough to leap over...


First two miles were easy, and then I just tried to gradually increase the pace. The last mile was a cool down mile. Here's the data:

Monday 1/18-5.3 Miles  I had planned on taking a rest day, because I thought my husband had to leave early for work, but he was nice enough to watch the kids, so I could get a run in...I ended up doing another progression run, and I ended up running a really fast downhill mile unintentionally....

Strava is addicting when you are given praise for imaginary PR's

I was running one of my normal routes...And I was up by the mountains(I don't want to give away to many identifying details of my neighborhood).. I was running by an area that wasn't super isolated, however I saw a man coming back down the hill with buckets, and bags. 

Maybe he had been camping behind the Jr. High..... But, it didn't look like camping supplies, and he didn't look homeless either.  He saw me, and put down his gear, and turned away from me. I didn't want to get any closer to him, so I began to haul my ass down the hill as fast as I could.... Maybe I'm super paranoid, but I will never ever take my safety for granted...

Here's the data.

That night I stretched and foam rolled extra.

Tuesday 1/19-13.1 Miles at the Clark County Wetlands Park...I had the day off from work because my parents and brother came into town for a visit. I wasn't linking up with them until 10:30am, so I had time for a two hour run.  I met up with my friend Ana. She lives on the other side of the valley, but she is such a nice person, and friend that she is willing to drive over to my side of the valley to train when our schedules are compatible.  She's a really strong runner too, but mostly she cycles...  I had run through the Wetlands once before.  I was worried about getting lost, so we agreed to run 5-6 miles in one direction and then flip a u-turn.  There was a mixture of paved roads, and trails.  We also hammed it up with the camera. On the way back,  when we got close to our cars we  were close to 12.75 miles, and we decided to round it up to 13.1ish miles... Here's the data:

And the photos.

This is not the Usain Bolt pose,
This will always remind me of
 Hulk Hogan

The Captain Morgan

Weight Loss

I don't really like discussing weight too much on this blog (Hello this is a running blog)... And when I see photos of myself like the ones posted above, I'm okay with how I look and feel.  But, over the last year I have lost about 10lbs.  The first 5-7lbs loss I was pretty happy with it.  But, recently coworkers and friends have been commenting on my appearance. and when I saw this photo from my son's party over the weekend I was a little surprised.

This photo makes my normally
round face look awfully pointy.

I'm not doing anything extra special to lose the weight, and I feel like I"m still eating plenty of treats...If I continue to lose weight without trying (who knew this was possible?)  I think I will have some blood work done to ensure that there is nothing amiss.

Well I guess that's all I have for now.  I didn't intend for this post to be so long... Be on the lookout for a SLS3 runbelt review and giveaway tomorrow.

And Thank You for reading!

LVTC 10k Race Report- Hoping to fix my heel striking

Well I feel a little silly ranting and raving about my Garmin issues.   I also want to warn you that this is going to be one of those long rambling posts, I have a few things I would like to mention.

A few days before the race
I had a 10k race scheduled on my calendar for the Hal Higdon Training program that I am using.

 I didnt' think that I would be racing, because I thought my son had a birthday party to attend. (that was the reason I couldn't race this event last year).  It turns out that the party will be held at a later date, and my schedule was now clear to race on Saturday.

I did speed work on Tuesday, and then I tried to keep my workouts on the light side in anticipation for Saturday's race.  I took Friday off completely as a rest day.

Saturday Morning
I was up early to bake, and assemble breakfast for my family.  I really enjoy baking/cooking first thing in the morning.  Last year for my birthday I received a wonderful Kitchen Aid mixer, and I have been using the hell out of that thing.  I love to make home made bread from scratch,

 and I also like to make muffins and waffle batter.

For my pre-race breakfast I whipped up a batch of Oat Hemp Berry Muffins.  These muffins are vegan.  Let me know if you want the recipe and I will post it.

My kids aren't vegan so they had Greek Yogurt Chocolate Chip Pancakes.

I also ate half of a banana, and I drank a cup of coffee.

The race had a 9am start time, which is a little on the late side for me, but it was nice that I didn't have to hurry up and leave, first thing in the morning.

The weather was going to be a crisp 42 degrees at the start. IMO it wasn't cold enough for tights.  I went with boy shorts, a t-shirt, and beanie hat. I'm a terrible blogger and I didn't take a picture of my race outfit.  I also wore my light weight shoes that I reserve for speed work only.

My co-worker Clarice was also going to meet me down at the race.  She wanted to check out the LVTC race scene.  She was so sweet she even made a sign for me.

It was  great to see some of the LVTC members.  I don't get to race too often, and half of the fun is saying hello to old friends, and meeting new members as well.

I was having issues with my Garmin the day before, so I brought my regular TIMEX watch just in case.  I'm so glad I made that decision.

I ran a short warm up with my friend Jamie, we ran about 1.7 miles.  I had tried to save the data on my new watch, and the data didn't save..... Uh oh.

I stretched, and did a few strides, then I striped off my warm up outfit (yoga pants, cheap target pullover), and went into the corrals.  I lined up a few rows back and then it was go time.

I'm behind the first two rows of dudes.

The horn went off, and I started both of my watches.  My Garmin was working as far as pace, and time.  But, to be honest, I didn't really look down at my watches much during the race.  For the past 5-6 weeks, I have been running blind and, I'm okay with just running by feel...After the run, is when it's time to analyze the data....

unfortunately this is the only photo from the
race that I'm in :(
I'm all the way to the left with the grey beanie on.

The first mile climbed 122 feet

Mile 1- 7:25

I hit the first turn around point and I noticed that I was the 8th woman overall. The course was well marked with mile markers at each mile point.  The next two miles were downhill.

Mile 2-6:53 (-123 feet)

During this mile I noticed that my left hip niggle was starting to hurt... This meant that I was doing something wrong with my stride....*Sorry for the tangent***  

As of late I am really trying to be diligent about proper running form.  I have to lift my knees high enough off of the ground in order for my foot to land properly instead of an ugly heel strike.

This was from the marathon, my heel striking
is especially ugly on the left side.
No wonder my hip hurt!!!

After I got my photos back from the marathon, I was shocked at how much I freaking heel strike now.  I can get away with it when I'm running a slower pace, but when you try to run fast (it's all relative), the force of the heel striking is causing some horrible things to happen with my hip....

I used to be able to do the splits with my left leg in front (gymnastics when I was a kid , and martial arts in my 20's).... I don't really have a practical use for doing the splits in my day to day life now, but by losing flexibility over the years, when I over stride I'm reaching out to the ground with my heel first... EWWWWW....

Now that I have figured out what bothers my hip, I'm am trying to increase my flexibility and strength on that side. Form drills such as high knees, butt kicks, and A-skips help, and in the gym I am doing side step ups onto a bench and single leg lunges.. **end of tangent**

Because my hip started to talk to me, I knew that I must be heel striking, I immediately told myself "lift your knees land with your whole foot, not just your heel".  It seemed to work and the niggle went away.

Mile 3 - 7:03 (-82 feet)  We were on a stretch of bike path that was concrete, but then we made a loop around a dirt track to the turn around point and then we  headed back up the bike path

Mile 4 7:39 (64 foot gain)
I tried to just focus on the runners ahead of me.

Mile 5 7:50 (100 foot gain)

At the final turn around point I noticed that James A. (my arch rival, I'm kidding, but he never fails to out kick me) was closing the gap.

Mile 6 7:07 (-44 feet) During this mile I'm working my butt off to not get picked off, but sure enough James goes right by me.  I held on though for a bit before I got dropped, and I was able to pass another runner as well.

Mile .2 1:28

I  could feel the dry heaves coming.  I crossed the finish line and then I puked a little bit.  Good times for sure.

Watch Time: 45:35

Please excuse my gross cuticles
and runner feet.

Official Time 45:30

I ended up being the 7th woman overall and 3rd in my age group.  There were some speedsters out there for sure.

I borrowed this data from one of my Strava buddies that also ran this event.

I'm kind of bummed that I didn't take any photos before or after the race.  But, I am really happy with my finish time.  I think now that I have addressed my hip issue, I will try to work on getting stronger, and hopefully race more often this year.

I'm sorry for this being such a long blog post.

Thank you for reading!

Technology Hates Me (or Maybe I'm just a meathead), & Training updates

A lot can happen in a week.  I apologize in advance for this being a long and rambling post.   I will try to discuss things in chronological order, so I don't go off topic too much...I bought a Garmin, and I have never wanted to throw a fit so badly over technology.....

Grrrr!!!

Training Updates

Monday 1/4- 3.6 Miles and Strength Training.  It was the first day back at work after the holiday, I think everyone was feeling out of sorts...I worked out on my lunch break, and the weather was absolutely perfect for running (cloudy with no wind).  I only ended up doing a short run, because I have been putting off strength training in favor of just running.... So into the gym I went to do some circuit training.  I did the following circuits:

1st Set
Flat bench press with bar (1st set no weight 2nd set 65lbs 3rd set 75lbs
Dead lifts with 45lb bar only
Back Rows with bar only
Bulgarian split squats 1set body weight only 2nd & 3rd sets with a 10lb plate

2nd Set
Hanging chin ups (I can only do two)
Lat pull downs
Side step downs off of a bench (body weight only)

3rd set
Push ups 5x5x5 (incline, regular, decline)
Step ups onto a bench with a back leg raise
One armed rows.

Pull overs for chest

Tuesday 1/5 Speed work. 8x400.  I was really nervous about doing quarters. I'm so worried that I will tweak something, or pull something, anyway.... I did my best to warm up and stretch properly.  I slowly jogged for a mile, And then I changed into my new speed shoes. During the second mile I did some dynamic warm up exercises: A-skips, Butt Kicks, High Knees, & Quick Feet drills.

New Balance W890v4

I bought these shoes last August , but they have sat in my closet since then.  I like the New Balance W890v4 for short interval training. This is a light weight shoe that provides plenty of support.  However, I prefer a heavier more supportive shoe for my long runs... Getting back to the speed work. I headed over to a park that has a 1/3 of a mile track.

I used my TIMEX watch to time my intervals. The track itself is 1/3 of a mile long so I was running about 3/4 of the track and then slowly jogging the 1/4 part.

I also wore my waist pack with my phone in there, because I wanted to be able to see my data afterwards:

Here's the data: (95, 98, 96, 97, 96, 98, 96, 94) These are the intervals I timed using just my stopwatch timer on the TIMEX watch

I had hoped that my quarters would have been closer to 93 seconds, but I was running on a dirt track, and I'm not 18 anymore....  Afterwards I did a short cool down, and  then I stretched.  That night my hip was a little tender, but with some foam rolling and stretching I was feeling better by the morning.

Wednesday 1/6- 5.9 Miles at 8:30 average pace.  This run, was on the hilly side. 

I had expected to feel wiped out by yesterday's track work.  But, I actually felt alright. I took the pace easy. (still running without a Garmin, so I was running by feel).  My phone measured the first mile way off, but I think the rest of the data is accurate:

Thursday 1/7-Short run, followed by a short strength training workout.  I had a 30 minute tempo run on my calendar (I'm very loosely following Hal Higdon's Advanced Half marathon training program.)  but, I decided to do more strength work instead.   

I set the treadmill at 1% incline, then I ran 2 miles in 17 minutes. The  first mile was warm up pace at 9:20, The second mile was tempo paced around 7:40. For the final 3 minutes I brought the pace back down to 8:30 per mile but I kicked the incline up to 4%

For strength training:

1st Circuit
Cable Flys
Cable Bicep Curls
Around the world lunges

2nd Circuit
Sit ups on an incline board
Push ups on the smith machine
Hanging Plank Pull ups using smith machine

3rd circuit
One arm rows
Pull overs for chest

Friday 1/8- Rest- I decided to treat myself to a new GPS watch.... I was supposed to pick up my new Garmin 220 from Best Buy. 

I hate the bait and switch.

I purchased this watch back in December for a deep discount (149.99).  It turns out, that my watch never came in, and Best Buy canceled my order.  Well, I didn't want to give Best Buy my business after that.  I went to my local running store The Village Runner. 

I cant say enough good things about the Village Runner, they are really knowledgeable about shoes, and other equipment. I try to give them my business when it comes to fuel and other running accessories.  I ended up choosing   the Garmin Forerunner 25.  It's very similar to my Forerunner 10.  But, mostly I wanted to have a GPS watch for the 10k that I was racing the following morning.

I didn't want to race a 10k wearing a waist pack, and try to fumble around with my phone during a race that short....

I get back to my office, and I decide to charge up my new piece of equipment. I plugged it into my computer and forgot about it for an hour or two.  At the end of the day, I pulled the Garmin cable out of  the USB port, and I didn't realize that it was doing a software update....I must have really done a number on the device because it started to beep, and then whine.... I think it was trying to look for a signal and it couldn't catch one because I was indoors.  I tried plugging it back into my computer, and no dice.... I called the Garmin support hot line and they told me how to shut off the device.  I had to leave the office to pick up my kids, and I was pretty pressed for time.. I was also really close to having a shit fit, because I just bought the watch and I already screwed it up!

However, when I left the building I caught a GPS signal, and the watch came to life.  Hallelujah!!

Saturday 1/9-LVTC 10k Race

Due to the length of this post. and because I'm still waiting for photos, I will write this up as a separate blog post....Here's a preview:

Sunday 1/10- 5.2 Miles I woke up feeling like I wanted to run....Normally after I race, I feel beat up and too sore to run...Maybe because I cooled down properly the day before. I didn't feel so trashed. I left the house carrying a muffin in a Ziploc bag, and I ate my snack during the first two miles.

Berry Oat Hemp Muffins
Homemade Cliff Bars-but tastier

  The hills were wonderful,  A few months ago I stopped running in a certain area, because someone was letting their dogs roam freely in the neighborhood.  This sucked because I love running up there.  I ended up chatting with some of the neighbors in that area and they told me that the renters had moved out with their dogs.  Sweet!!

This picture is from last weekend.  Yesterday's run had a bit
more cloud coverage.

I ran the miles at recovery pace, here's the data:

The dip in pace is when I stopped to talk to the neighbors.

Well I hope to have my race report posted in the next day or two. I'm also going to head out to return my Garmin this afternoon....  Wahhhh.....(That's me crying like a kid that dropped their ice cream in the dirt).

Thank you for reading.